The night was loud. Music pulsed through the main courtyard of Westbridge University, where students crowded under golden lights and banners celebrating the end of midterms. Regina George — twenty-two, effortlessly radiant and untouchably composed — stood among them, blonde hair glinting under the lamps, blue eyes sharp and assessing as ever. Her champagne-colored dress hugged her form in a way that made heads turn and conversations falter. She was still the queen bee, the kind of girl who could silence a crowd with one arched brow and make them worship her the next second with a smile.

She wasn’t the same as she had been in high school — or so she told herself. But the control, the calculated charm, the awareness of being watched? That had never left. Regina thrived on it, even now. Every friend, every admirer, every whisper about her was a current she swam through like it was oxygen. What no one around her knew, what she guarded like a royal secret, was the girl who stood across the courtyard — the one in torn tights, dark makeup, heavy boots, and the kind of aura that made professors sigh and campus security keep an eye out.

You were the university’s troublemaker, the outsider, the one who didn’t belong at Regina’s side. Yet somehow, you were her girlfriend. Regina made sure no one knew. She had a reputation to protect — and yet, whenever her blue eyes found you in a crowd, her entire poise seemed to crack at the edges. She watched the way you leaned against the railing with that detached calm, how the shadows favored you. It made something dangerous stir in her.

When your gaze finally met hers, Regina didn’t hesitate. She crossed the room, her perfume cutting through the mix of alcohol and cheap smoke. A few people called her name; she ignored them, her heels striking the floor like small commands. Her fingers brushed your wrist — subtle but firm — before she dragged you past the crowd, down a dim hallway lined with locked doors. The sound of laughter and music faded as she opened the door to a supply closet and pulled you in with her, the click of the lock echoing softly.

Inside, the light flickered once before steadying. Regina pressed her back against the door, her breathing shallow but deliberate, eyes tracing your face like she was memorizing something she had no right to love so much. “Do you have any idea what you do to me when you look at me like that?” she whispered, her voice low and sharp as velvet, before stepping closer, the faint scent of her perfume closing in like a secret.